The Gold Diary
There was so much of value in it
When Kenneth discovered an old diary, he did not think that it had anything worthwhile in it. It was an old tattered diary with a dark tan leather cover. The diary belonged to his grandmother, Alice. She had lived through two World Wars and she had a very exciting life, from working in the circus, to being a teacher of English in Germany, Japan and Russia and later as an agent of the Secret Service.
Kenneth was a busy man and did not have the time or the patience to read the journal of this Grandmother. He gave the book to his daughter Eve and she was enthralled with the contents of that old diary. Eve never met her great-grandmother but she now knew her as a real person. The journal was filled with everything from the people she met, the places she visited, to the customs and practices of people in other countries, recipes, household tips to other secret agent stuff written in coded languages. The diary was a goldmine of information and it gave the young Eve, an opportunity to catch a glimpse into the mind of her great-grandmother.
That diary changed the life of the teenager and years later Eve became a historian and she pieced together the lives of so many men and women who had lived during the wartime years. It was her research in the “Old Diary Project” that gave families of the present, an opportunity to know more about their relatives, friends and ancestors, who lived, loved and worked all those years ago.
Have you or someone you know ever had the opportunity to find an old journal of diary that belonged from someone in your family? Did this discovery make a difference to your life and could you say that that diary was filled with gold? Unlike the diary of a goldsmith, where he or she keeps all his or her calculations from the weight of gold he or she bought and sold to the amount of profit and losses he or she suffered over the years.
The lives of those who have lived before us, was important to them and is precious for us, as it gives us the chance to see what life was like so many years ago. Life does change every day and year, but in so many ways life remains the same. A diary helps us to see the working of a person’s mind and sometimes, you may read a diary of an individual who thinks like you do. Have you ever been so lucky?
